Entertaining, but could of been so much more

Rating: 7/10 (28 July 2013)

So Pacific Rim has finally landed on our screens. The Transformers Versus Godzilla, X-Men Sentinels Versus Cloverfield and monster versus robot hybrid action epic from Guillermo Del Toro. This film draws influences, whether by design or story, from a variety of sources. Not only from the above mentioned films but also Power Rangers and Robocop. It's like a mash-up of fabulous old telly, sci-fi fantasy stuff and a teenage boy's wet dream.
If you've missed any of the 100 trailers or TV spots then ill recap the films story. It's not complicated and unfortunately predictable. Enormous reptilian monsters have risen from the deep and are threatening the world's major seaboard cities. Only colossal Transformers-style robots can save humanity and they have to be operated by pairs of warriors attuned to each other's mental processes.
This is not Del Toro's best work. His best work relies on creepy, almost weird story telling. It lacks the subtle magic of Pan's Labyrinth, the creepiness of Cronos or the humour of Hellboy. What it is though is an absolutely loud and entertaining fighting robotical alien invasion apocalyptical type movie. It sells itself as nothing more and delivers just that.
In short the castings a bit ropey, the accents are a bit off and it's a little too long for what's on offer. There's too much human story when we really don't need it and the films humour scenes were wide of the mark. We need robots. We need aliens and we need them to fight. A lot. When what we want is delivered its fantastic – its everything that Transformers isn't.
The film also sets a back story that is briefly explained and allows serious prequel consideration, as should the thought of a sequel. It could have been so much better than it is, but it missed its mark by a whisker. Its good fun, good entertainment but the very high hopes I had for it failed to materialise.
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